WikiConference India 2011/Submissions/Enriching Oral Traditions
 | This is an open submission for WikiConference India 2011. |
- Timestamp
- 20:58, 26 August 2011 (UTC)
- Title of the submission
Enriching Oral Traditions
- Type of submission (workshop, tutorial, or presentation)
Presentation
- Author of the submission
Dr. Mathai B. Fenn
- E-mail address or username (if username, please confirm email address in Special:Preferences)
mathaifenn@gmail.com
- State of your origin (Country, if you are not based in India)
Bangalore, Karnataka, India
- Affiliation, if any (organization, company etc.)
Principal Consultant, The Talk Shop. Currently, visiting faculty @ iitgn.ac.in
- Personal homepage or blog
www.mathaifenn.blogspot.com
- Abstract (maximum 500 words)
The transition from Oral Traditions to Written Traditions have had profound impact on how knowledge is represented and disseminated. In modern times the Written Tradition has been mired in controversies regarding authorship and IPR. This has affected the oral traditions in many ways.
1. Use of copyright material in oral traditions 2. The idea of a “Correct Version” that is fixed arbitrarily based on a certain accepted text 3. Evaluating contributions from the oral traditions in the absence of concrete “Productions” 4. The oral traditions capture dissent and conflict, giving voice to people who do not have control over the Production Process.
The growth of digital media as community generated (under various OPEN licenses) content provides a healthy alternative to the hegemony of copyrighted material. A college professor straddles both worlds, in the classroom its the oral tradition that takes the stage, even at conferences. But the professors career is judged by research publications and authorship squarely from the Written Tradition. New forms of written traditions pioneered by Wikipedia presents the scope for crowd sources, organically evolving texts. This is further enhanced by the universal availability of youtube, ted.com and other sources which can enrich learning contexts with VIDEO (I hate to call them Multi-media since they are at best Bi-media).
My presentation speaks about the experience of teaching a college level course WITHOUT any prescribed texts whatsoever. For the first time I merely gave a list of topics to come prepared with, without giving any pointers whatsoever about WHICH text to refer to and what are the CORRECT answers. Students referred to any text that they found useful and credible and came to the class “Prepared”. What was interesting is that each person had a slightly nuanced understanding of what the concept was. This made for an interesting discussion in the class, as each student tried to defend their position.
This presents us with a radically different way of conceiving of the classroom and indeed education is changing world-wide beginning, for a change with lesser developed countries than the developed countries. People who deal with ORAL traditions are making a comeback like the news anchor on television who depends on written material. The teacher in the classroom also a performer of the oral tradition. This knowledge helps present the teacher with a new strategy of how to handle the classroom.
- Track (Community/Knowledge/Outreach/Technology)
Knowledge
- Will you attend Wikiconference if your submission is not accepted?
Not sure, would sure like to.
- Slides or further information (optional)
hope to update this later...if i can figure out how to.